Vice Admiral William Soden Sims was the initiator of the revolution in naval gunnery in the United States, and made the greatest contribution, and it was through his efforts that the gunnery of the United States Navy improved more than ten times in the past ten years, and quickly caught up with the advanced level of Europe, and since then the United States Navy has truly grown into a world-class powerful navy. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

However, even with such a great contribution, William Soden Sims was still just an ordinary colonel because of his young qualifications, and if it were not for the exceptional promotion of Mr. President, William Soden Sims, who was already nearly fifty years old, would have to wait at least another ten years for him to become a general. And even now that he is the commander of the main American fleet, the generals under his command may not all be honest and obedient, which puts a lot of pressure on William Soden Sims to prove himself, as evidenced by his assurances to the Secretary of the Navy that he is sure of victory in a head-on battle.

In fact, William Soden Sims is not unaware of the glorious history of the Chinese Navy in the past ten years, and in the absence of reliable intelligence, it is not very responsible to speculate that China's battlecruisers will not be attacked, and as long as they are not so weak, and the battle cruisers can easily seize the T-shaped crosshead with their speed advantage, I am afraid it is difficult for him to have much chance of winning. But now that the United States was in dire need of a big victory, the U.S. Navy needed a big victory, and he himself was in dire need of a big victory, the new vice admiral chose to follow his own common sense when assessing the strength of the two navies before the war.

Human beings have always tended to believe what they want to believe, even if reason tells them that it is wrong, and William Soden Sims was a rare brilliant talent, but he was not a great man who could overcome these human weaknesses, and inevitably made the same mistakes as many famous people in history.

However, if you look at it from another angle, perhaps it is precisely because Vice Admiral William Soden Sims is an expert in naval technology that it is even more difficult for him to believe that Chinese warships can still have terrifying performance that subverts common sense in the naval world when dreadnoughts have appeared and the design of capital ships has basically matured.

Because of this mindset, after Vice Admiral William Soden Sims sent out a light cruiser to search for the enemy and never found any trace of the main Chinese fleet, he naturally misjudged that the enemy had gone to Cuba, and even though the American troops in Cuba sent a telegram saying that they had not seen the Chinese fleet and could not get it out of the horns they had drilled into, until the American detachment that had gone after the two Chinese light cruisers sent back a telegram asking for help......

"Asking for help? We're 4 to 2! How the hell did that waste become the captain of the ship? While Vice Admiral William Thorden Sims was extremely dissatisfied with his subordinates, a terrible thought suddenly popped into his mind, "Maybe it's not that they don't behave well, but that the enemy is too strong, and if so, ......"

After dispelling this thought, Vice Admiral William Soden Sims sent two more light cruisers and four destroyers to support, and even if he was not satisfied with the performance of the detachment, the first real battle between the two navies must be won, otherwise not only will the morale of the U.S. Navy, which had gradually recovered after the Battle of Yanping, suffer a heavy blow, but also he, the commander of the fleet, who was already very questionable, will also be shaken......

Before the confrontation of the Grand Fleet, it is a very common situation in history for the peripheral ships of the two sides to meet first fight, but this naval battle is actually not in the plan of the Chinese Navy, at least Yang Yonglin did not ask the two light cruisers to engage the enemy, only asked them to lead the enemy in another direction, but the captains of the two light cruisers are young and vigorous new generals, how can they let go of the opportunity to destroy the enemy and make meritorious contributions?

In particular, Lin Daxin, the captain of the light cruiser of the "Shen Tianzi" (Chinese light cruisers are generally named after the fierce future in history), as the son of Lin Yongsheng, the old general of the Beiyang Naval Division, he and other founding nobles (except for the biochemical soldiers, it is the ship administration department, even if the other people are in a high position, even Yuan Shikai, who has become the prime minister, has just squeezed into this circle. While enjoying all kinds of conveniences after joining the army, it is inevitable that there are many colleagues pointing fingers behind his back, which makes Lin Daxin, who has strong self-esteem, always linger in his heart, and all he wants is to prove himself on the battlefield.

Therefore, Lin Daxin ordered the speed control at the beginning to prevent the enemy from losing it, and then after a period of time to determine the position of the main force of the enemy fleet, he immediately sent a telegram to another light cruiser, the "Chang Yuchun", asking it to launch a counterattack with him and kill the four American light cruisers that were chasing after him.

The captain of the "Chang Yuchun" is a veteran who participated in the First Sino-Japanese War with the Haitian, and his qualifications and positions are higher than Lin Daxin's, but as a biochemical soldier with insufficient initiative, when he does not involve issues of principle, he mostly listens to Lin Daxin's command. Now Lin Daxin's request did not conflict with the above orders, and he had a greater chance of winning after estimating, so he called back to agree, and said that he would be under the full command of this junior, which made Lin Daxin completely let go of the big stone in his heart and began to issue orders like a real fleet commander.

Since this latest Chinese light cruiser also adopts a full-gun central axis layout, it does not need to turn around completely, as long as it turns more than 30 ゚, the 16 150mm main guns on these two light cruisers can salvo the pursuers behind. However, because the distance between the two sides was still far away at this time, and the range of the 150mm naval guns was too close to reach, Lin Daxin ordered to continue to turn and take a diagonal line to meet it, which could not only save time, but also seize the T-shaped horizontal head, making it difficult for the enemy's firepower to play, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.

In the face of the sudden counterattack of the Chinese warships, the commander of the US detachment did not panic, after all, the number was 4 to 2, which was already a very huge numerical advantage in a naval battle, and there was a main fleet dozens of kilometers away that was enough to easily crush the two Chinese light cruisers as a backing, and he could not lose no matter what, at least he thought so at this time.

But as the two Chinese light cruisers accelerated closer, the American commander finally sensed the danger, "The enemy's speed is too fast, right?" Did they deliberately slow down the ship before? Damn, they're going to take the T-shaped crosshead, what should I do? (To be continued.) )